eProductivity to Sweep Your Mind Clean

UPDATE:  This feature is now live and I’ve been using it for a couple of days so I’ve updated this post to incorporate my experiences.

Life has been extremely busy for me lately.  There’s been stuff hitting from every angle and without eProductivity and “Getting Things Done” (GTD) I don’t think I’d still have my head above water.

eProductivity has quickly become such an important part of my life, but it became so by being unobtrusive.  It simply works with Lotus Notes to make life easier.  They say that the best waiters are the ones you don’t notice.  eProductivity is like that, serving you and helping you.  Quietly pointing you in the right direction with the amazing “Weekly Review Coach”.

But one thing has been missing.  Each time I go through my weekly review, I get to the part that says, “Empty Head” and I’d find myself clicking it to get through quickly.  I suspect because unless there were things really at the front of my mind, I wasn’t able to grab them and put them down.

Eric Mack was kind enough to send me the updated templates very early, so here’s how it works…

 

 

Invoke Mind Sweep via the eProductivity menu.

You are then given the Mind Sweep screen with a right and left box.  The right box contains lists of triggers to prompt your brain to remember those things that are there but not necessarily right at the front of your thinking.  Here’s a screen shot of the default “Professional Triggers”

Trigger Lists:  Very importantly, all of these trigger lists are totally customisable through the eProductivity/Preferences/Mind Sweep menu.

This lets you set up trigger lists that work for you and your situation.  Without this customisation, it would be very tempting to bypass the mind sweep. If you tried a few times and the default triggers didn’t work for you the benefit received could well be minimal causing you to sub-consciously ignore the whole thing.

So please, please, please, take the time to customise, and be willing to add/delete as you use it.

Here’s mine with just a few initial customisations made (these will change as needed from time to time) to accommodate the fact that I Pastor a church.

You the enter your thoughts into the left hand box.  This can be done either directly into that box or through the entry box at the bottom.

Once all thoughts are entered (ie. your mind has been swept clean!) click the “Process” button.  You’re given the option to continue or go back to add more items.  You’re also given some quick instructions on what to do next.

This then takes you to the view of unclassified actions from where you drag these new captures into the correct Project or action context.

The Mind Sweep is an integral part of Dave Allen’s GTD methodology and to have it incorporated like this into eProductivity is a wonderful boon.

Having now used this for a few days, I’ve discovered this also lets me use eProductivity as a capture tool as well.  Last night I was in a meeting with my laptop.  I simply opened up the mind sweep feature, recorded my action points and ideas directly into the left hand box and process all at once at the end.  As I was going into conversation straight after the meeting I didn’t drag each item over then and there.  I closed the unclassified actions view, knowing that next time I opened eProductivity it would tell me I had unclassified actions and prompt me to process them immediately.  This was much more time efficient than using a separate capture tool and re-entering into eProductivity at a later date.

Well done Eric and team.

Tags: David Allen, eProductivity, Eric Mack, GTD, Mind Sweep, Productivity, Weekly Review

Tagged as: David Allen, eProductivity, Eric Mack, GTD, Mind Sweep, Weekly Review